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Ken Percell, Executive Director and Senior
Civilian at Warner Robins Air Logistics Center
The culmination of a rigorous competition referred to as the “Super Bowl of O.R.,” the Franz Edelman Award brings together the very best examples of innovation in the discipline from large and small, for-profit and nonprofit, corporate and governmental organizations around the world. Past winners in the 35-year history of the Franz Edelman competition have included GM, Motorola, Continental Airlines, the New Haven Health Department and the City of San Francisco Police Department.
The winner was announced last night at a VIP reception and gala dinner at the InterContinental Hotel in Miami, Florida during the INFORMS conference, “Applying Science to the Art of Business.” More information about the conference is available online at http://www2.informs.org/Conf/Practice06/edelman.htm
The other finalists were Animal Health Institute and Cox Associates; The US Commercial Aviation Partnership, comprising Airports Council International - North America, Air Transport Association, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Transportation, The Boeing Company, and the Transportation Security Administration; Omya Hustadmarmor and Møre Research/ Molde University College, and Travelocity and Sabre Holdings.
The 2006 Franz Edelman Award winning entry, “Streamlining Aircraft Repair and Overhaul at Warner Robins Air Logistics Center (WR-ALC),” was presented by WR-ALC, the University of Tennessee, College of Business Administration and Realization Technologies, Inc. The winning entry discussed how WR-ALC used Operations Research in 2005 to arrive at a radically different approach to manage the repair and overhaul activity on its C-5 transport aircraft. WR-ALC used an O.R. technique called Critical Chain to reduce the number of C-5 aircraft undergoing repair and overhaul in the depot from twelve to seven in just eight months. The time required to repair and overhaul the C-5 aircraft was reduced by 33 percent. The five additional aircraft now in operation have generated immediate additional revenue of at least $49.8 million per year. The replacement value for these aircraft is estimated at $2.37 billion. The additional workload the center is accommodating will bring in additional revenue of $119 million through 2008, with this number projected to increase to $248 million by 2009.
In accepting the award, Ken Percell, the senior civilian at WR-ALC stated: “Warner Robins is extremely pleased to receive the Franz Edelman Award for our work on reducing flow days for the C-5 aircraft line. The results underscore the gains that a proper application of these tools can offer to the Air Force. This accomplishment should reinvigorate the use of Operations Research in the Air Force and across all branches of the military in general.”
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From left to right: Mr. Bill Best - Deputy Director, 402d Aircraft Maintenance Group, Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, Mr. Ken Percell - Executive Director, Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, Dr. Mandayam Srinivasan - Ball Corporation Distinguished Professor of Business, University of Tennessee, Mr. Sridharan Chandrasekaran – VP Strategic Services, Realization Technologies, Dr. Jan R Williams – Dean, College of Business Administration, University of Tennessee, LTC Jeffery E. Elliot – Commander of 559th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron
** Please note: Photos are available upon request. For further information, please also feel free to contact John Birdsong, Chief, Media Relations, WR-ALC/PA, Tel: 478-222-1024; [email protected] **
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The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS®) is an international scientific society with 10,000 members, including Nobel Prize laureates, dedicated to applying scientific methods to help improve decision-making, management, and operations. Members of INFORMS work in business, government, and academia. They are represented in fields as diverse as airlines, health care, law enforcement, the military, financial engineering, and telecommunications. The INFORMS website is www.informs.org. More information about operations research is at www.scienceofbetter.org.